Happy 2 weeks! (a week late...)

Blakely is 2 weeks old!  (6 days ago!) 

We went for a 2 week checkup, and this girl knows how to grow!  She was 4lbs 4oz when we left the hospital and 11 days later she was 5lbs 8oz.  We put her on the scale and Stephen and I looked at each other and laughed and told the nurse the scale was messed up.  The nurse assured us it wasn't!  We knew she was eating a lot and getting bigger, but we didn't know she could even gain that much weight that quickly! 

Blakely is a little confused about days and nights.  She is impossible to wake up most of the day, and wide awake for hours at night.  We are hoping she grows out of this VERY soon.  Stephen is great about staying up with her after I feed her so I can get a little more sleep.  Another thing Blakely is confused about is when to go to the bathroom.  I swear, she waits until I take the diaper off to go.  This girl goes through more diapers and more clothes than you'd believe.  She also makes me go through quite a bit of my own.  I have a poop stain on my favorite jeans to prove it.  We'll just say it adds character.  :) 

 She loves Grandpa and G G (stands for Gorgeous Grandma- my delivery nurse suggested it so I decided that's what my mom would be called).  I think Grandpa likes to hold Blakely more than anyone- she likes it too. 

Isn't she a sweetie?  Especially when she is sleeping.  At night.  :) 

Happy one week birthday!

This week...
Blakely peed on me at least 4 times.  (We had no idea that girls can spray too!)  :)
She started making noises when she eats.
I was so sleepy I accidentally used Blakely's hat for a burp wrag.
She gets the hiccups all the time- Stephen must have gotten sympathy hiccups because he has had them for almost 2 days straight.
We had our first outing- to the doctor.  Blakely gained 3 oz from her discharge weight and has only 2 more to get to her birth weight! 

Still to come in week number 2:
Second doctors appointment.
First visitors to the house- Blakely's great grandma and grandpa and great aunt Tammy.
First night with JUST us.  My mom is abandoning us for 24 hours starting tomorrow morning.  She thinks we need a test run before she goes home for good.
And hopefully more sleep is in our future.  :) 

The highlights

We got an early Christmas present.  Blakely Lynn was born December 8th at 4:15 weighing 4lbs 9oz and 16 3/4 inches long.
It has been a long week, and sometimes I can't figure out what day it is.  I will give a few of the highlights of the last 5 days of our lives.
I checked into the hospital to be induced Tuesday night.  Blakely wasn't growing like she needed, so the doc decided she'd be better to get out.  I was 35 weeks 5 days.
I think because I was so early, and my body wasn't ready, labor completely changed my pain scale.  I have a new 10.  I think you could cut off my finger and it might be a 5 compared to this.
After 11 hours of contractions, I was able to get an epidural that only worked on half my body.  The second epidural was my best friend.
It took me that long to get to 3cm dilated, then took a few more hours for me to get to a 5.
Then in about 20 minutes I went from a 5 to a 9.
Then 20 minutes after that Blakely showed up.

Because she was so small and early, she had to go to the NICU, but not for as long as we thought she would.
She had to have a feeding tube.  It still makes me sad to think about it.

The day after she was born, Stephen got either food poisoning or a bad stomach virus and started violently throwing up at about 11pm.  Luckily we were at a hospital.
He spent the night in the ER and finally stopped throwing up at 4:30am after 3 bags of IV fluids.  He was then quarantined to his parents hotel.  We didn't get to see him for the next two days. 
I discovered that mom's can run off of significantly less sleep than non-moms.  I slept about 4 hours in three days. 

Praise the Lord for my mom, who took over when Stephen went to the ER.  Thanks to her, the three of us are still alive.  Praise the Lord also for Stephen's parents who came in town to see Blakely, but ended up nursing Stephen back to health instead.  They got to see Blakely for 1 hour in the 3 days they were here.

 We checked into the hospital on Tuesday, and finally got to go home Saturday afternoon.  This was such a gift from God since we were prepared for her to be in the NICU for much longer. 

She's the sweetest thing I've ever seen and we are so lucky to be her parents.  Now if we can just get some fat on her little chicken legs. 

Onesies

My friends Claire and Claire threw a "Billings baby blowout" shower for me last night and invited a bunch of the students that are involved with our ministry.  We played chug the bottle- hilarious.  The bottles were filled with apple juice and apparently it's a lot harder to drink out of a bottle than you think.  They were pretty small bottles and it still took them about 5 minutes just to finish them.  We also played "Celebrity baby name OR fake baby name."  Also hilarious.  I'm all for creativity but "Pilot Inspektor" and "Audio Science"?  Poor kids. 
My favorite baby clothes are just little white onesies.  There is just something about how simple and clean looking they are compared to all the other busy baby outfits. I just love them.  I can't wait until it is warm enough for little B to just run around in a plain white onesie.  So our other activity at the shower was painting white onesies.  I just knew that out of a bunch of sorority girls there had to be some artistic talent to make some cute outfits!  I was right! 
How funny is the "got milk?" and the "pink" one?  Notice that the "pink" is written on the booty of the onesie.  Stephen was not too thrilled about that one and we have already argued about whether or not she will even be allowed to wear this one.  (I'm pretty sure he's the only guy that will be checking out her booty for quite a while, and that will only be to check for poo.)

 Don't worry, she will get a Razorback onesie soon enough. 

How cute are those!?  I am sad I didn't get more newborn or 0-3mo sizes so she can wear them sooner. 

Birthing Class #2

We made our second attempt at a birthing class this weekend, and it was so much better!  Here we are about to leave!  We were pretty excited (well, I was.) 

This was an all day class (9am to 4pm) and even though it took up our whole Saturday it was SO much better than our Bradley class experience!  Our teacher seemed like a fairly normal human being, and we were in the class with about 8 other normal couples.  In fact, I think I was the only "crazy" person in there that is considering a natural birth.  It was unbelievable how different the information was from the Bradley class.  This was a completely unbiased class that was not trying to sway anyone to do a drug free or drug assisted birth.  I felt like we could trust the information.  We learned about drug free births, drug assisted, induction, and c-sections.  But some of the stuff was literally the exact opposite of what the Bradley teacher told us.  Someone is lying!  :) 

We learned lots of great relaxation techniques for labor, and it was great fun for me because Stephen had to "practice."  Which meant that he spent most of the morning rubbing my shoulders and back to find out what relaxes and soothes me.  Ha!  He was a trooper and I think he will be so helpful when I am in labor.  Here is Stephen in his "dad" outfit for the day.  He left his morning coffee mug, which completed the ensemble, in the car.  At least it's not a wind suit. 

It was fun because several of the women were 35 and 36 weeks pregnant.  It was crazy to think that they could be having their babies any day now!  And I'm only a few weeks behind!  We can't wait!

It's time

That's right folks.  It's time for Christmas.  I know there are some scrooges out there (like my husband) that think you can't start celebrating Christmas until after Thanksgiving.  He said to me yesterday:
"That's like on my birthday in June, you saying 'happy birthday, but we are celebrating my birthday today too.'"
But I personally believe that of all people, we are allowed to celebrate CHRIST'S birthday whenever we want!  Who's with me?!  And luckily I was able to finally convince Stephen to get the Christmas decorations out of the shed.  I compromised and we are waiting until next weekend to get the tree up.  Even some of the radio stations agree with me.  My new favorite started playing Christmas music nonstop on November 1st.  So I'm actually late in the game. 
So I also decided that not only does my house need decorations, but my blog does too.   I am still searching to see if I can find an even better background, but this one will do fine for now. 
Come to our house and you can enjoy hot cocoa in one of our many Christmas mugs, eat on our Christmas plates, eat candy out of the snowman candy jar (there will be Christmas m&m's soon), and watch Elf. 

Sleep these days...

I love being pregnant.  Every little inconvenient thing is so worth having a baby.  So I hope no one ever gets confused about whether I like this or not, or am thankful that God allowed us to be pregnant.  But let's be honest, the interesting things to write about are the inconveniences! 
Like sleep, for instance.  I need it more than usual, however, everything seems to make it more difficult and less enjoyable.  I am tired during the day and need to take a nap, but when I do, I have trouble falling asleep at night.  It is nearly impossible to get comfortable.  I wake up a million times at night to use the bathroom, B is practicing gymnastics(I do love being woken up by this!), its an inferno in our room, etc.  I either have horrible heartburn, or I am wide awake despite the fact that I was falling asleep all day.  Several times I have laid there talking to Stephen, only to discover he's fast asleep. This pregnancy hasn't negatively affected his sleep.  He's another thing that complicates my sleep.  I get SO hot these days.  Stephen, being the sweet husband that he is, is a bit of a cuddler at night.  He blames me for this.  Pregnancy has made me, well, NOT a cuddler.  He gets really cold at night, traps himself in with covers, and somehow manages to get his body temperature to about 200 degrees. Then he gravitates over to my side of the bed, and I wake up drenched in sweat.  I have felt him before and been sure he was dying because he felt so hot.  Luckily our house has been about 60 degrees at night so I can throw the covers off and get a little relief.  I usually have to tell Stephen to move to his side of the bed about 2 or 3 times a night.  It's not that I don't love him, he just tends to smother me at night. 
Another thing that is pretty stressful about sleep is that I sleep on my back.  Everyone knows you aren't suppose to sleep on your back when you are pregnant.  I think for a lot of people it just eventually gets uncomfortable and they stop on their own.  It seems for most people this happens around 4 or 5 months.  Well here I am, over 7 months pregnant, and I wake up on my back most of the night. 

I seem to have a lot on my mind at night that I can't just let go.  I seriously lost sleep in the midst of my cloth diaper research because I couldn't help but lay there in bed thinking about it.  This past week a good friend of ours came to stay with us.  We only have one bathroom upstairs and both our bedroom and the guest room are upstairs so we get to share a bathroom with our guests.  No big deal.  I wake up at every tiny noise though.  Also really not that big of a deal since I probably need to pee anyway.  Well, our friend used the bathroom but didn't want to flush the toilet because he didn't want to wake us up.  Silly, since I woke up as soon as I heard him get out of bed.  So I can't go back to sleep because I am afraid I'll gag when I go in there because it will smell like pee.  What a strange thing to lay there and think about!  I think I laid there for an hour worrying about it- not to mention, I really did have to pee, but I was afraid to because of the smell.  So I laid there and wouldn't get up until Stephen got up to use the bathroom.  Kinda mean to make him suffer through the smell, but he's a man and he's not pregnant.  I told him the next morning what happened and he told me I should have woken him up and told him to flush the toilet for me.  So I did the next night when our friend did the same thing.  It's kinda funny really, to think that I laid there and lost sleep, all because I was afraid of smelling pee. 

I am getting use to not sleeping well or much, and am actually looking forward to having something to do during the times I am not sleeping when we have this baby.  Sometimes I lose sleep because I am thinking about that. 

31 weeks!

30 weeks

This was a monumental week in my pregnancy thus far.  Mainly because I am REALLY feeling pregnant.  In a good way, of course.  There is just something about 30 that all of a sudden there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Here are some real live pregnancy observations:

One or two more weeks, and I think Stephen will be putting my socks on for me!  I now actually have to roll out of bed.  I can still sit straight up if I try really hard, but it hurts.  I quit wearing my wedding rings a few weeks ago, because my fingers would swell on and off through the day and get uncomfortable, but now they are pretty much swollen all the time.  We had a meeting with a bunch of college students the other day and I was talking to a girl, and she noticed I am pregnant so we talked about that for a while.  Well, she is good friends with another girl on staff who she later told: "That is so great that even though she got pregnant when she isn't married that she can still be so involved with the ministry!"  Ha!  I watched myself walking by a mirror the other day and I am pretty sure I was waddling.  It took me three days to clean the house this week.  Not because I did anything especially difficult, I just have to take a long break between major activities.  There is no more Halloween candy left for the trick or treaters.  I will take personal responsibility for this, BUT I found out yesterday when I was feeling guilty for eating so much candy that Stephen actually got into the huge bag, dumped it out, and picked out all of the twix bars.  It's actually not ALL gone, but all that is left are a few milky ways and 3 musketeers, and who even likes those?  

Pregnancy makes you crazy.  I spent the first 3 months worrying that I wasn't actually pregnant, the next 3 worrying because I wasn't big enough.  Then I had a bit of a growth spurt and I worried that I was too big.  My baby started moving a LOT in the last few weeks, which was fun, but then I started to worry that she was moving too much.  Then a couple days ago, she slowed down a bit, so I had to go in to do a nonstress test to make sure she isn't moving too little.  She gets the hiccups.  But is getting them more that 4 or 5 times a day a sign of something bad?  I bet I could find something on google that says it is.  I recently discovered that she is "transverse" (laying sideways) in my belly.  What if she doesn't turn?  C-section?  And then I pray and ask God that she would get here early (cause who doesn't want to have their baby asap?) but I have to cautiously throw in, "But only if she's healthy, strong, and with no complications, and not TOO early!"  As if God will play a dirty trick on me and answer my prayer to bring her early and say "But you just said early...you didn't say you ALSO wanted her to be healthy..."  So I take the prayer back.  "Nevermind....just healthy." 

And there is also the mood swings.  I use to think this was just an excuse for girls to be mean, then blame it on being pregnant.  I'll only confess one instance to you:  Stephen and I were on our way to bed.  He was in a pretty good mood trying to be all cuddly, and I just wasn't feeling it.  Sometimes I just don't want to be touched.  Well, he decided I was in a playful mood too, despite my hints, and was just pestering me.  I told him to cut it out, and of course he took this as me playing back, who knows why.  So then he starts tickling me and pinning me down- which I HATE.  So I sortof start freaking out, but of course, he still just thinks I'm playing back.  So then he gives me a strawberry on my belly and on my neck- (you know, where you basically blow spit all over someone...) So that's it for me.  I push him off and yell at him to quit it.  He realizes the fun is over, but still doesn't think its as big of a deal as I do.  So I storm off to the bathroom (because I have to pee for the hundredth time) and contemplate my revenge in there.  I came back, and did the only appropriate thing.  I spit on my hand and wipe it on his face and say "You spit on me, I spit on you."  He obviously at this point was convinced I was a psycho.  I apologized.  Now maybe that wasn't pregnancy, but I need to believe it was.  And frankly, it's a good thing I had something to blame it on!  :)

Here I am at 29 weeks! 

Cloth diapers

Now, I know what you are thinking.  The shabby white rectangle cloth somehow finagled to fit around a baby's tiny little legs and waist- fastened at the sides with clothespins or safety pins- bulky and sad looking with the noisy plastic waterproof pants over them.  Yes, that is what they use to be, and what I was lucky enough to wear during my diaper days...(apparently my sensitive little bottom just couldn't take the chemicals of disposables)  Well, cloth diapers have come a long way since then.  Did you know that if your baby isn't potty trained until 2 years (or older for MANY kids!) then you will probably spend $2000 or MORE on disposable diapers!?  If you are like me, and you want several kids- or 5, then that means $10,000 on DIAPERS.  Trash, basically.  It's disheartening.  When I read the ridiculous expense diapers would be, I began my research of cloth diapers.  Much to my surprise, not only have they come a long way in their functionality but also in appearance!  I'll give you the short rundown.

Prefolds and covers: almost exactly what I previously described- however, the covers don't HAVE to be plastic water pants.  They make cute ones in colors and prints that velcro or snap closed. *$1 for the prefold (cloth) and anywhere from $7-$17 for the cover (which can be reused without washing if it doesn't get yucky)
Fitteds and covers:  Same as above, only the cloth part is actually designed to fit on just like a diaper.  *$5-$15 for a fitted
Pocket diaper: looks like a regular diaper, (but cute) and there is a pocket on the inside that you stuff with a liner that soaks up whatever comes out of the baby.  *$15-$25, $5 for extra liners
All in 2:  Same as above, only no pocket, you either snap or lay the liner in. *$18-$25
All in 1: Exactly like a disposable diaper, only you don't throw it away, you wash it.  (You obviously wash all of them...)  *$20-$30
ALSO many of these come in sizes, or one size that can adjust to fit the baby.  Obviously- the sized will fit better, but the one size will be more economical and in the long run, save more money.

Babies need their diaper changed around 8 to 12 times a day, so you need at least that many diapers, and twice that many if you don't want to CONSTANTLY be doing laundry.  I have already started my collection (with the help of my mom of course) but I won't be done until several weeks after she is born, so I can see exactly which ones I really like best.  Here is my collection so far- with a few in the mail on the way: 

All of these are Pocket diapers.  The top two are one size (adjusted to smallest setting), the middle two are sized (small), and the bottom one is a duo- there are only two sizes (so it adjusts but will eventually be too small).  I have some Prefolds and covers on the way, as well as some All in Ones.  I am trying to have a variety of about 10-12 diapers to try when she is first born, then I will buy the rest in the kinds I like. 


There is obviously a lot more that goes into cloth diapering...like how you store them before you wash them, how you wash them, what to do when you are traveling, smells, etc.  But I will save that for those that are actually interested!  I am slightly obsessed and thanks to a few sleepless nights recently, I feel like I could start my own business with these or teach a class or something, and I don't even have a baby.   So do you think I'm crazy, or what? 

So long second trimester...

I may be jinxing myself since I actually have one full week left of the second trimester...but here are the top 10 things I will not miss about the second trimester in no particular order:

1.  "MY second trimester was great!  You are going to feel better in a week or two!"  You shouldn't tell a pregnant girl that, cause it might not be true! 
2. Weight gain.  I could cope with the 3 pounds of the first trimester, but holy cow I packed them on the next 3 months.
3. The inbetween belly.  No one could really tell I was pregnant, but it was clear I had gained weight.  And what do you wear for the in between belly? 
4. Hairy belly.  Something no one really tells you about...yes, my belly is hairy.  Luckily its blonde, but still pretty sick if you ask me.
5. Sweating.  Last week it was 50 degrees one evening- I had on a tank top and was still sweating profusely.  I know my hormones will continue to be wacky, but at least my third trimester will be enjoyed with cooler temps. 
6. Appointments.  4 weeks is just entirely too long to think up all the horrible things that could happen before your next appointment.  The internet should really be banned for all pregnant women. 
7. Braxton Hicks.  They were fun at first....but now I don't like them.
8. Glucose screening test.  That stuff made me feel sick the whole day!
9. Time.  Somehow it now takes me twice as long to do EVERYTHING. 
10. Even though it's just around the corner, it still FEELS like forever until I get to have my baby! 

Honestly, it was difficult for me to come up with 10 things I won't miss, so I guess the second trimester wasn't all bad.  It was surprisingly easy to come up with the 10 things I loved about the second trimester:

1. We got to find out we are having a girl, and got to see her on 2 ultrasounds squirming away.  
2. We got to pick out her name.
3. I get to feel her move all the time.
4. Stephen can SEE the little human inside me squirming around.
5. Hiccups.  Who knew it could be so fun for someone else to have the hiccups?
6. No more picky eater here...EVERYTHING sounds good!
7. Grandparents can no longer resist the urge to buy things.
8. I AM starting to show.  Which leads to the next bonus-
9. "Expecting mothers" parking spots.  I don't feel like a criminal now that I sortof look pregnant.
10. Books.  If only I could have gone to college to get a degree in pregnancy and motherhood.  I would have been such a faithful student and would have aced all my tests.

Here I am at 27 weeks.  One more week until 3rd trimester!

25 weeks 4 days

This isn't suppose to be anything artistic with me gazing at my belly...I just didn't know Stephen was about to take the picture.  And no face for this one...if you saw my face today, you'd know why.  I don't need too many no makeup and bad hair days on record.  If you ask me, I'm not really looking 6 months pregnant.  What do you think?  This also isn't a fish for "you look so skinny" comments (though every pregnant girl likes those:)).  I am purely talking about the size of my belly, so you can be honest! 

These are a few of my favorite things...

Here are a few of the foods that I have become particularly fond of during pregnancy:

 Bread.  I always loved bread, but I crave it allll the time now.

Cottage cheese.  This is a more recent one.  I started eating it because I felt like I needed some more healthy snacks (see pictures below...) and just started eating it with almost every meal. 

Whole. Dill. Pickles.  mmm.  These were mainly in the first trimester, and I loved them so much that I had to exercise self control to not eat more than one a day (though I gave in sometimes) because I think each pickle had a weeks worth of sodium. 

That's right, FLAMING HOT CHEETOS!  I ate a bag of these almost every day in high school with a Dr. Pepper.  Stephen thought these were the grossest thing I ever asked for...then a few days later...he was hooked too.  They are addictive.  I have to ration these or I'll eat the whole bag in one sitting.  I also have to set limits for myself, like one bag a month, because these add absolutely no nutritional value to my diet.  Plus I think they give me pretty bad heartburn.  At least a pickle doesn't have any calories. 

And last but not least, corn dogs.  Stephen and I discovered about a month ago that the gas station on the corner has a corn dog and a coke for $1.99.  Incredible!  They aren't actually corn dogs...but they are in the same family- just no stick- and that's what the gas station calls them.  The funny thing is, I caught Stephen red handed this week when I got into my car to the aroma of mustard, cause he left the wrapper from his corn dog/coke fix.  Turns out, he had been stopping in for an afternoon snack SEVERAL times, and he didn't even get me one! 

22 weeks 4 days

Woah.  Look at that belly.  Don't get too excited though, I think it might just be the perfect angle to make me look pregnant.  I still don't feel like anyone could tell just seeing me on the street.  And I don't have a lumpy belly (at least not when I'm standing up) it's just my shirt bunching at the top.

This one is a little more realistic.  Stephen thinks my belly got huge overnight.  I think I probably just had a big meal.  Gosh, I have terrible posture.  Next picture I will be standing up straight...

Anniversary celebration

Happy 3 year anniversary!

Stephen surprised me with an anniversary date yesterday!  He was really creative, and I had no idea what we were doing until we got there! 

This was right after Stephen surprised me with a prenatal massage.  It was my first professional massage, and it was great!  The girl talked the whole time, so there was no falling asleep, not to mention the painful digging into the "tension spots" to release "toxins"  (whatever that means).  But I do feel better!  She said I have toxic buildup because I don't eat organic.  I should have lied and told her I did eat organic to see if she still thought I had toxic buildup. 
Then we went to a sports bar for a little bit, got some wings and watched football.  Then we walked around the Plaza and went to a few shops- I got to show Stephen the crib we should be getting this week.  He loved it, of course.

 THEN Stephen took me to "SantaCaliGon Days" in Independence, MO.  It is a town festival with lots of "junk" (as Stephen likes to call it) for sale, and fair type food.  They had a free Easton Corbin concert that night.  To avoid the smoke and standing in a large crowd we found a hill where we could hear everything so we set up a blanket and listened!  One of the best things about local festivals/fairs is the crazy people that go to them.  We got a big kick out of watching screaming babies, rednecks, and a few people who had a little too much to drink.  Speaking of drinks....

Don't worry, its just homemade root beer (and we shared).  One of my favorite festival specialties!  Stephen just thought we needed a picture of me throwing this big bottle back.  I forgot to limit my liquid intake to avoid the Port-o-potties as much as possible.  At least I don't have a huge belly in danger of port-o-potty walls.  Ew.

 It was so fun- my favorite anniversary of the three!

Birthing Class.

I would really like to have a drug free birth.  I heard there was a certain type of class I should take to learn how to make it easier to go drug free.  I also heard that people that participate in and teach these classes are pretty gung-ho about all this, and that they sometimes can get a little radical.  They often paint doctors in a bad light and cause women to fear doctors and hospitals.  So I emailed the instructor and voiced my concerns just asking her if she thought this class would still be a good fit for me, considering I was not interested in hearing about why I should fear my doctor or hospital, and also that I am not fully committed to a natural birth.  She assured me it would still be a great class. 

So Stephen and I paid our $50 deposit (of $300 total) and went to our first class this evening.  As one would expect, hippies are generally the type of people that participate in classes like this where everything is natural, etc.  More power to them.  I have nothing against hippies, and even have friends that are hippies.  This class fit that mold exactly, with the exception of me and Stephen.  Our instructor brought a snack which was homemade yogurt, home grown strawberries, and homegrown cantaloupe.  Now, I like to eat healthy, but let me tell you, homemade yogurt is gross, and all the homegrown strawberries and cantaloupe in the world cannot make it worth eating. 

But on to the class.  It was me and Stephen and two other couples.  That's right, two.  That should have been my first clue.  A birthing class is not the setting that you want to be in such small numbers.  You are talking about slightly awkward things, not to mention the awkward videos you are watching (yes, even in the first class!) and the strange positions you are getting into, you can't exactly snicker from the back of the room.  We were only about 3 feet away from our instructor and everyone else in the room.  Our instructor brought her two kids to class.  So every few minutes, in the middle of some awkward birthing statistic or pelvic demonstration, her children interrupted to tattle that the other one drank 11 glasses of water. 

We played a "True/False" game of statistics and medical facts.  One of my favorite "true" statements was "Doctors kill more people than heart attacks."  This is when I first got a little irritated.  We moved on to awkward jokes about her children and more statistics on how many people die in hospitals. We then spent the next hour of the class talking about the history of natural child birth.  Apparently it began in the 1950s.  Funny, because I thought maybe Eve was the pioneer to natural child birth.  We then spent the second hour of the class doing exercises and relaxation techniques.  The class was suppose to last from 7 to 9, by the way.  At one point, all the women were laying on the floor, and our husbands had to hover over us and watch us tense every muscle- touch it to see what it felt like, then we would relax that muscle- and he'd touch it to see what that felt like.  His assignment for the week was to watch me sleep.  No thanks.  Then for the NEXT hour, I honestly don't know what we did besides watch a video from the 60s of five natural births.  Of course these women had NO pain, and were basically in a state of euphoria for labor. How nice!

Class was finally over at 10pm (uh hello! I am pregnant here...don't we need to go to bed???) and the instructor wanted to ask me about my clotting disorder.  Immediately she questioned the medication I am on and "could not believe" that my doctor was going to induce me at 39 weeks because that is SO early.  I forgot to remind her that he went to school for 10 years and has delivered thousands of babies, and she got certified to teach a class.  She continued to babble statistics and stuff, and I was flustered and felt like she was attacking my decisions for me and our baby.  That did it for me.  I decided that we just paid $50 to sit through 3 hours of awkwardness.  As we walked out, I was still containing my anger, and Stephen sheepishly asks me what I thought.  I told him we weren't going back, and immediately he was giddy.  He said he'd been thinking for some time during the class about how much money he'd pay to not have to go back, and it was well over $50. 

She's almost a pound...but what about the other 9?!

Enjoy the progression of my belly thus far...  (5 weeks)

                                                          (9 weeks)

(16 weeks, sorry it's blurry!)

 

 

 

                                                          And here I am at 20 weeks!

Her name.

I know it may seem a little early to land on a name, but it felt like forever to me.  So I say we have landed on her name, but I guess nothing is actually official until it is written on a birth certificate.  And even then, pay 50 bucks and you can change that too.  Stephen and I have very different opinions on cute girl names, so there are only a small few that we both actually like.  So we picked Blakely because we both liked it.  I knew a girl in high school named Blakely, and I mentioned it to Stephen and he LOVED it.  So since he loved it, I loved it.  So that's her name. 

The middle name has a little better story.  We decided a long time ago that we wanted to use family names for the middle name.  And not just a random Gertrude that just sounds good with the first name.  We wanted to pick names from people in our family that have qualities that we hope our children have.  We have several people on the middle name list, but it should come as no surprise that my mom was one of the front runners.  Her middle name is Lynn. 

My mom is a person of extremes.  I don't mean that she is particularly adventurous or that she takes risks or does much that is really all that exciting (sorry, Mom).  I mean that the characteristics she has, she has them to an extreme.  One of my favorite examples of this is her bedtime.  An understatement about my mom would be that she is not a night person.  By that, I actually mean she goes to bed around 9pm.  I'm not exaggerating, ask my dad.  So when my mom goes to bed early, and she does more often than you'd think, that means she goes to bed BEFORE 9pm.  I definitely hope Blakely inherits this great quality of going to bed early.  However, the characteristics that actually made us want to name Blakely after my mom are her hard work, sacrifice, and generosity.  She is all of these things to an extreme. 

The best example I have is our hangout spot in highschool.  All mine and my brother's friends hung out at our house all through high school.  We didn't have a particularly amazing house.  It wasn't big.  But we did have a few items that made it easy for us and all our friends to hang out.  We had a basketball goal, and a trampoline.  But more important than these things were those characteristics my mom had.  She always had an unlimited supply of cokes and food.  Any of our friends could come over at any time.  My mom was so welcoming that many times our friends would end up sitting at the kitchen table hanging out with my parents instead of us.  During the summer, our friends would stay at our house well into the middle of the night.  This was a sacrifice for my mom since she goes to bed at 9pm and our house is small.  I am sure she could hear everything that went on.  All the while my friends and I were freeloading off my mom's generosity, she was also taking care of my younger brother, Micah, who is deaf and mentally retarded, while also keeping up with a full time job. 

My mom is the hardest working, most serving, most generous person I know.  I could go on about the money that she spends on other people and the things she does for our family.  And my dad is obviously a generous person too, but I think he was lucky enough to have my mom rub off on him (no offense, Dad!).  I know that everyone in our family would say, including Micah (if he could talk), that we are all better people because of my mom.  I wonder if my mom always slept through our ruckus or if she would ever just lay awake listening to the ridiculous conversations teenagers have.  Now that I am going to be a mom, I really hope that we can make a home where Blakely Lynn and her friends want to hangout all the time, and I think at least sometimes I'll stay awake and listen. 

Nice to meet you

Well here I am blogging world.  I am 20 weeks pregnant today, and to celebrate I decided to swallow my pride and start a blog.  I have actually thought about it and wanted to for a couple of years now.  I say swallow my pride, not to knock bloggers (I mean, I am one, right?) but because it is such a scary thing to start.  What if no one reads it?  What if I have nothing to write about?  What if my friends find out and make fun of me?  So I am swallowing my pride, because I no longer care about those things.  I know two people will read it:  my mom, and my friend Katy.  And like Katy said, they are the only ones that matter anyway.  And of course I will have something to write about.  I could talk to myself for hours, so now I will just put it on a blog so others can know what I talk to myself about.  And if my friends find out and make fun of me, well, that's ok.

Why did I decide to start a blog, you ask?  Well, a few reasons.  First of all, I have always thought I loved writing.  Not writing stories or anything like that, just writing whatever I am thinking.  My friend Katy and I email back and forth, and we really don't talk about anything important, we just sortof talk about whatever we are thinking.  She says that we should change all the names and publish our emails into a book.  It would be a good read, I can assure you of that.  I also always wanted to write an autobiography.  My husband thinks this is arrogant.  But it's not like I think I have any sort of exciting life or anything, I just think people would probably enjoy to be inside my head sometimes.  Another few reasons is that I sortof read 3 blogs.  I am sure that number will expand now that I am officially in the community.  It all started when I got pregnant.  I was so curious about everything with pregnancy and I found two people that I knew were also pregnant, but further along than me, that had blogs.  I wanted to read about the weird things that were happening to their bodies, the weird things they ate, and when they started to show, etc.  So I started reading them.  One of these ladies I know well, one I only know a little.  The third person I only knew as an acquaintance in college, and I have to admit that the reason I started reading her blog is because she was really cute before she had a baby, really cute after she had a baby and I wanted to know what she looked like in between.  She sort of gives me hope that I too can be cute again after a baby.  And not to my surprise, she was cute during as well.  She is actually the one that really made me want to start blogging.  In the 3 years that Stephen and I have been married, we have taken a total of probably 15 pictures.  Seven of those were on our honeymoon.  I have no excuse for this.  I realized, now that I am having a baby, that we have nothing to show for the last 3+ years of our life.  And when I am old, I will only remember general things, and not the useless details that I want to remember.  This girl said that she hopes to one day get each year of blogs printed into a book for her to keep on her shelf and read when she and her husband are old.  How sweet.  So I thought that I wanted to do that too.  I want to be able to remember everything about my pregnancy and having a baby, and I figure there are at least 2 people that want to know those things too.  Here's my downfall:  I talk too much.  So I will stop there, in fear that if it were much longer then you would stop reading anyway.